String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89

£23.70

Beach’s String Quartet, completed in 1929, was likely created for Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s chamber music competition after nearly a decade of work. The piece incorporates three Inuit melodies: “Summer Song,” “Playing at Ball,” and “Itataujang’s Song,” which have been abstracted and transformed into contrapuntal lines that drive the composition. Compared to the lush Romanticism of…

Description

Amy Beach (1867–1944) was an American composer and pianist. A remarkable child prodigy, she made her public debut in 1883 at the age of 16, which was also the same year she had her first composition published.

In 1885, she got married and curtailed her performing career to focus on composition (by her husband’s wishes), making only one performance per year with the proceeds being donated to charity. After her husband’s death in 1910, Beach resumed performing and toured Europe, gaining acclaim for her music until the onset of WWI. Her Gaelic Symphony was the first symphony composed and performed by a woman in the U.S.

Beach’s String Quartet, completed in 1929, was likely created for Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s chamber music competition after nearly a decade of work. The piece incorporates three Inuit melodies: “Summer Song,” “Playing at Ball,” and “Itataujang’s Song,” which have been abstracted and transformed into contrapuntal lines that drive the composition. Compared to the lush Romanticism of her earlier compositions, this work features an exploratory approach to tonality and harmony, reflecting Beach’s shift towards Modernist elements.

Additional information

Composer

Instrumentation

Duration

14'

Difficulty

Arranged by

ISMN

979-0-708225-01-0